Canadian Culture Non-Breaking News

Not one, but two days after Broadcaster magazine reported it in their online edition, CBC’s online arts site finally does a story on the cancellation of CBC TV’s ZeD.

It’s too bad they didn’t take the time to celebrate some of ZeD’s accomplishments.

Instead, they simply repeated the Canadian Media Guild’s take on the whole thing and grabbed whole chunks out of the union’s press release.

Here’s an example of the depth of the reporting:

From the Broadcaster story:

“This is another blow to the concept of public television,” says Lise Lareau, national president of the CMG. “In its quest for high ratings and commercial success, CBC management is abandoning the things that make public television special, like its ability to take risks, chart new courses for TV and other media, and reach audiences who are not well served on the rest of the 500-channel dial.”

From the CBC.CA’s story:

“This is another blow to the concept of public television,” Lise Lareau, national president of the CMG, said in a statement. On April 20, the CBC announced it would lay off 79 people involved in in-house production in Toronto. “In its quest for high ratings and commercial success, CBC management is abandoning the things that make public television special, like its ability to take risks, chart new courses for TV and other media, and reach audiences who are not well served on the rest of the 500-channel dial,” she said.

Meanwhile, the very same CBC arts web site has a huge piece on Mission Impossible III (including a Tom Cruise Quiz), and is all over this important Canadian cultural story:

The owners of New York hip-hop station “Hot 97” have filed a breach-of-contract lawsuit against its landlords over an eviction notice.

Surely one of the self-proclaimed stewards of Canadian culture can do better.